In order to purify exhaust gas discharged from an internal combustion engine, an exhaust gas purification device having a NOX catalyst for absorbing NOX in an exhaust passage is known. Because fuel includes sulfur, sulfur poisoning occurs as shown in FIG. 18. That is, the sulfur poisoning is the phenomenon that sulfur component of fuel included in the exhaust gas is adsorbed after long-term use of the internal combustion engine. Thereby, the purification ability of the NOX catalyst by the exhaust gas purification device may be decreased distinctly. In order to prevent sulfur poisoning of the NOX catalyst, the exhaust gas purification device described in JP-A-6-058138 corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,472,673 has a sulfur trap for adsorbing SOX in the exhaust gas provided upstream of the NOX catalyst in an exhaust passage.
However, the above exhaust gas purification device includes only one sulfur trap. Thus, when the exhaust gas purification device is used in a diesel engine under a wide range of temperature, such as 100° C. to 700° C., for example, SOX cannot be removed sufficiently.